About us

Via Carpatia is the shortest historical road from north to south, connecting the Baltic Sea with the Aegean Sea.
The development of the Via Carpatia Transit Road, as well as its faster completion, would greatly affect the economic growth of countries, including the development of small and medium-sized businesses, science and research, technology and industrial parks.

The road known as Via Carpatia runs from the Lithuanian port city of Klaipeda through Kaunas, the Polish cities of Bialystok, Lublin and Rzeszów, through Košice and the Hungarian cities of Miškovec and Debrecen, across Romania through Oradea (Great Varadín), Lugoj, Calafat and Constanta, through the Bulgarian metropolis Sofia and the city of Svilengrad and should end in Thessaloniki, Greece. The original Lancut declaration was signed in 2006 by the transport ministers of four countries – Lithuania, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia who declared the cooperation of these four countries in the construction of the Via Carpatia road.

From 2006 to the present, there have been many activities in this direction:

In June 2006, the idea of the Via Carpatia – Poland transit route was born. In October 2006, a conference called “One road – four countries” was held. The ministers of Poland, Lithuania, Hungary and Slovakia discussed the north-south road stretch – Via Carpatia. The result of the conference was the signing of the Lankut Declaration, which called on national governments to include this route among the priorities of the national transport policy. (Lancút, Subcarpathian Voivodeship). A year later, in October 2010, an international conference was held where the transport ministers of 7 countries signed a joint declaration – The “Via Carpatia” Declaration (Lancút, Subcarpathian Voivodeship). In November 2012, a call was accepted under the title “Road route Via Carpatia – An opportunity to strengthen the competitiveness of the eastern regions of the EU” aimed at supporting the construction of Via Carpatia and its inclusion in the TEN-T.

The greatest achievements of EGTC Via Carpatia in the construction of the Via Carpatia corridor (the shortest road from the north of Europe to the south) were achieved in cooperation agreements signed in 2015 and 2016.
The cooperation agreement was signed on April 17, 2015 in Rzeszów, Poland by representatives of the regional governments of Poland, Slovakia and Hungary. The representatives of four municipalities – Podkarpatské voivodship, Košice Self-governing Region, Prešov region and Boršod Abov Zemplín county have agreed on the rules of mutual cooperation in the implementation of activities aimed at building the Via Carpatia transport corridor.

In November 2016, a conference was held under the name “10th anniversary of the declaration of Lancut – Via Carpatia today, challenges for the future”, which followed the meeting from 2015. Within the framework of the conference, the agreement was expanded to include three more regions: Lubelskie Voivodeship, Masovian Voivodeship and Podleskie Voivodeship.

In addition to these international events, EGTC Via Carpatia held numerous negotiations, workshops, meetings on the Via Carpatia route. It was discussed at the national, regional and local level, and currently this topic has moved into the implementation phase, when countries have started the construction of individual routes and a phased handover is expected by 2025 – 2030.